National University of Comahue

About: National University of Comahue is a education organization based out in Neuquén, Argentina. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Species richness. The organization has 2242 authors who have published 4498 publications receiving 87157 citations. The organization is also known as: UNCOMA & UNCo.

Simultaneous agronomic and molecular characterization of genotypes via the generalised procrustes analysis: an application to cucumber

Abstract: Characterizing entries in a germplasm bank by molecular markers and/or agronomic attributes is a common practice, but studies that simultaneously use molecular and agronomic traits are less frequent. Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA) was used to determine the relationships among 41 entries of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) via the simultaneous use of 16 agronomic traits (nine qualitative variables and seven quantitative variables) and 33 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers using a set of 11 primers. Other techniques like generalization of the simple matching coefficient, Gower's general similarity coefficient, and discretizing the quantitative variables were compared with GPA. The ordinations of cultivars using each trait individually did not fully characterize the cultivars. In fact, on the basis of the qualitative traits, only two groups were formed, with cultivars belonging to Beth-alpha and Dutch constituting a single group and the slice and gherkin types another group. The quantitative traits and also the molecular traits further separated the cultivars belonging Beth-alpha and Dutch types. The utilization of all variables together showed a greater discrimination power of genotypes. Four groups were defined which were consistent with Dutch, gherkin, slice, and Beth-alpha types. GPA was the most precise technique to cluster the entries. The final configuration was an average of the individual configurations. For other methods, those traits with more variants (but not necessarily more genetic information) had more influence on the final results. Besides, GPA allowed a deeper study of the relationships among relative ordinations of a same genotype under different types of descriptors to establish concordance between characterizations.

Fire as a driver of pine invasions in the Southern Hemisphere: a review

Abstract: Contrasting evidence in the degree of post-fire conifer invasion reported for different regions of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) raises questions about the role of fire as a presumed driver of invasion. We studied the influence of fire on invasion responses (assessing ‘serotiny’ and ‘time’ as key factors to determine invasion) based on a review of case studies performed in natural habitats of the SH. Our work showed that burned environments have no lag time with respect to invasion and are more susceptible to serotinous pine invasion than are unburned environments. Also, serotinous pines reached extremely high densities in burned habitats, exceeding records for the same species in unburned habitats, as well as for non-serotinous pines in any habitat condition. Therefore, burned environments are impacted by conifer invasion earlier and more intensively than unburned ones. Overall, our work indicates that fire is a leading driver of invasion, but only for serotinous pines. This highlights the importance of considering life history traits of introduced species to determine the probability and extent of invasion in relation to disturbance. We discuss the implications of introducing serotinous species in regions of the SH where serotiny is absent from native flora. Lastly, we provide suggestions for prioritizing management and further study.